Urban Art (usually in the form of graffiti) means "unsanctioned art", as opposed to officially sanctioned art. Also called 'street art', it does not mean that one is of higher quality, or even necessitate a different style. Urban art is often created under duress which sanctioned/approved art is not, and this constrains it. It is guerrilla art. Urban art is, however, free of any censorship, commercialism, and community mores which establishment art must hew to. This liberates it and makes it uncompromised; it is "pure art".

Unsanctioned street performances such as those of flashmobs and the Ku Klux Klown could also be considered urban art.

Interactive Art

Posters and Fliers

Not all posters and Fliers are unsanctioned, but these are noncommercial, uncensored and artful.

Critical Mass Poster DPFS flier State of the Homeland, posted in Delta bathroom Driving is Bad for your Ass, posted @ Delta I'm so glad we fucking evolved, posted @ focus your art Do you suffer from Affluenza? The Immaculate Invasion of Iraq, posted outside delta Protest poster for the war in Lebanon and music show. Read the small print Keep pretending no one frets about genocide or al-Fallujah and Hadithah The empire is in love with you, posted at Focus your Art Poster for Utah Phillips at the Varsity Mad Cow Stringband @ the Palms Gengar behind Chipotle Pokemon trainer near Agava Restaurant OBEY Cow at The Marketplace Have you seen this squirrel? Have you seen this crow? Be the first of your friends to like this post. Roommate Wanted. Speech Bubbles. Lost Wormhole. Lost Ewok. Missing Squirrel.

Sculpture

Spray painted

The bridge under the I-80/Highway 113 interchange over Putah Creek used to be a very famous graffiti spot until about 4 years ago. You can access it by heading out towards the Hydraulics Lab south of the Vet hospital and Unitrans depot. It is also south of the Center for Aquatic Biology and Aquaculture (CABA). Local writers DEOne, SteveOne, Dawns, Erekt, Phlower, Bfore, and even such SF artists as Giant, Bukue, SetOne, and Leks and others used to kill the walls out there every weekend, drink beer, build skate ramps, blast metal, and generally have a good time. You can see most of this work documented on Susan Farell's site graffiti.org. This was all fun and games until an alert CHP officer saw me painting in the middle of the day and pulled his gun on me. Graffiti spot no longer. All the walls have been sandblasted.... :( —(Mr. JeffSpeckles aka SteveOne SBS HNR, freight train killer 1996-2005 and beyond)

For an ever changing display of graffiti, head over to the train tracks along 2nd Street near the Police Station. The freight trains there park for a while, displaying many vast murals of well executed graffiti art. Of course, where there is good work, there is also bad, but typically one can spot many multicolored banners mixed in with the typical tags.

Photo Request:There is some nice graffiti on an old trailer next to the Davis Park and Ride parking lot behind Ikedas. I saw it one day when I didn't have my camera and I haven't had a chance to make it back. Anyone?

Tag of the notorius, nationwide, Urban Street Artists This is painted on the remains of a building foundation in the UC Davis Arboretum. The FoundationUnder the bike bridge at the worst intersection Peace sign on F Street. This meanie face is in the Arboretum. On Colgate Dr. between L and M streets. Under Pedrick Bridge Under Railroad Bridge This is the Southwest side of that trailer, I didn't get a look at the other side. On the sidewalk east of Natsoulas Gallery April 2007

Stenciled

Stencil Series

There seems to be a series of stencils in Davis produced by the same group or at least in a very similar style. They have been found all around town, including on Campus and the part of Downtown closest to Campus.

Misc. Stencils

2004

Found on the overpass by In-N-Out on 09-20-2004. Found near "Life is War," same time. Also found near Aggie Village (6/21/05)

This stencil was found on the side of the Death Star on 11-15-2004. It is in the same style as the other political stencils from the summer of 2004. There were 2 other new stencils (no pictures of those yet), also obviously by the same group/individual

November

2008

June

July

2009

March

In front of a bench near the bike undercrossing of I-80 On the west side of Wright Hall

summer

Death Star duck. Located at the north entrance of Freeborn Hall. Used to read 'Casino Bicycle Parking'...then got painted over by the UC peeps. Photo by ElisaHough. War=Terror. End the War. Northeast corner of Freeborn. UC Davis Unicorns, roundabout northwest of Shields

October

2014

Stencil Status

Many of the original stencils are now painted over. The city seems to be using bright silver paint to cover some of them, which makes for some really ugly sidewalk. So what you do is stencil many of them in a pattern so that when they silver paint over them it makes a large face or such.

Comments:

I hate to be a stickler but the one on the pillar of the art building is actually a silkscreen. You can make the argument that a silkscreen is a stencil but it is not a stencil in the same form as all the other ones on this page. Also, I'm sure there is other Urban Art in this town besides stencils. Maybe someone can contribute some of these other mediums? —GracielaGuardado

2005-07-17 16:58:43 Does anybody have any pictures of the Evangelions that used to be on the Orchard Park Overpass? —NickSchmalenberger

2005-09-12 13:32:00 on the Death Star there's another stencil, a woman's face in a box that looks like it's suppose to house a light to light the floor, i would have taken a picture but we couldn't really stop —MichelleAccurso

2005-11-06 22:54:36 I thought it was an Evangelion, but maybe it is Samus. From Metroid right? I have pictures. I'll post them when I get the film scanned. —NickSchmalenberger

2006-01-06 23:18:26 is it so wrong that i wish there was more graffiti around to photograph? i adore urban art —MichelleAccurso

2006-01-12 11:44:34 Take the train down to Berkeley and look on the east (and west too) side of the tracks. Between Richmond and Emeryville you will see tons of nice stuff. Graffiti tends to be concentrated around train yards and tracks, construction sites, and freeways in urban areas. —JeffSpeckles

2006-03-04 00:35:27 A neat book to check out is "Graffiti world" by Nicholas Ganz. I like a lot of the character artists in there. I particularly like Kid Acne and Cha. The reason why you see a lot of writing on the trainyards is because trains travel a lot, and therefore provide a wider audience for the writer. —MatthewTom

2006-03-04 00:39:58 BTW, does anyone know what "Achilles Snap" means? It's not art, but I see that message every morning... —MatthewTom

2007-03-28 07:40:32 "The back of one of the design bungalos next to Walker Hall" was there before August/Sept. but I don't remember how long before. —MarieHuynh

2007-05-02 16:47:28 I periodically see tags from fairly notable tagging crews on trains in Davis and Woodland. It always impresses me. —BrianTrott

2007-05-24 21:34:04 There is a cool stencil of a Garden gnome throwing a molotov cocktail on a dumpster at the corner of 8th and h. I don't have a digital camera or I would post it. It reminds me of the work of Banksy every time I see it. —Dimitri

2007-06-15 01:36:37 Dunno if it's still there but I loved the stencil of a pair of scissors "cutting" part of freeborn hall off - it was artfully placed. —AynReyes

2007-07-10 08:21:00 I don't mean to be too negative or anything, but whoever made the Chuck Norris, Andre the Giant, John Lennon and Bob Marley stencils, needs to get some new material. That shit's majorly cliche. Oh, and we need to put more freehand tagging in this section. Last thing, quit talking about Banksy. That guys like a monolith of talent that overshadows a lot of other great artists. Plus, he's like the Tony Hawk of graffiti. Okay I'm done. —BrianTrott

2008-03-24 01:10:17 I really appreciated the freehand monster that appeared on the south side of Big 5 in the marketplace. It was covered up recently, but it had a good run. —AynReyes

2009-05-12 11:16:09 The freehand monster was a good concept but it wasn't as good as it could have been. Kinda sloppy, but a good idea. And good placement, too, if you're into that sort of thing. —JohnDudek

2011-07-07 13:37:41 the putah creek bike tunnel behind borders has had some pretty lame spray paint stuff on it but there have been some cool paint splatter of different colors that look amazing —JustinYoder

2011-08-23 22:27:07 Maybe stenciling needs its own page. It's barely art and its distracting people from a lot of the awesome crap out there. Like the picture I just posted of someone's graffiti underneath Pedrick Bridge. Take a deep breath and check it out, it's some awe-inspiring stuff. It's got at least two angry owls, Big Bird (possibly a pterodactyl), two Salvador Daliesque elephant/wolf/face/stars, the words sex and ape appearing several times, and a pretty good sized marijuana leaf in the bottom right corner. I get flustered trying to take it all in. And then I think "man, this guy or girl dragged a huge ladder down here to do this." Mind blowing. I think the angry owls represent the dichotomous nature of knowledge. Or the dichotomy of something else. Big Bird seems pretty omnipotent, like a benevolent creator. But then it looks like he has a claw and you have to wonder, "Is that a pterodactyl?" Is it? —MikeyCrews

2011-09-28 12:14:12 In the photo "Under Pedrick Bridge" there's a big yellow figure, I've seen his work pop up on I-80 overpass near Mace, and on the I-80 and CA-113 junction. They were there for a couple weeks before they got painted over, too bad no one got a picture of them. —SamChieh

2011-10-12 20:27:14 Yea I saw some similar designs under the I-80 bridge about a month ago but they had all been blemished with other, less talented people's work. Hopefully the big-bird artist gets back at it soon. —MikeyCrews